Christmas Lights For Dummies

Doesn't everyone always believe that Christmas in the past used to be so much better?

Nostalgia is at epic epidemic levels at Christmas time.

Below is a photo of our house lit for Christmas 2012.  As you can see, we even had snow, a beautiful "White Christmas", proving that those old C-9 bulbs strung out across the eves and a pleasing amount of snow for proper Christmas atmosphere was the right look.  
This is how Christmas is supposed to look.  Right?

I once believed that the right Christmas look meant that the house had lights hung along the eves of the roof.  
But there is another way; but should I give up on lighting along the eves (which is a more heavenly and elevated effect) and celebrate the Christ child by illuminating the earthbound, rooted and prosaic bushes and trees?
Or maybe, this is way too philosophical for some old Christmas lights?
What would Jesus do with my Christmas lights?

Christmas Lights 2012 - Done Right

The TRADITIONAL Christmas; Strung on the eves of our home

Well times do change.

Those Christmas lights that I laboriously hung from the eves every December were lights that my dad used to have on our house during the 1970's.  Those big old C-9 bulbs and all of that wiring has begun to breakdown over the last 40 years, and so I had to resort to getting some more modern sets of Christmas lights from a friend who was cleaning up his things after a divorce.

My old exterior decorating scheme was a bit like the once fashionable mullet haircut style; which was said to be "business up front - party in the back".  My set of inherited lights were for years arranged in a mullet-style lighting scheme; "serene on top - party down in the shrubbery".  The alternating serene blue and green lights that were strung soaringly heavenward along the eves, while I draped the multicolored and vibrant warm "party" lights in the bushes below the eves.  I thought it worked on so many levels.

But every year, as I have pulled the Christmas lights out of storage and tested them, I would find one or two strings that were not working.  My mullet-style scheme was no longer practical, as I did not have enough working serene blue and green C-9 bulbs to go up on the eves.  It finally reached a point that so many of the 40 year old lights were not working, that this year I decided I would break with the traditional display of lights on the eves.  I still much admire those holiday homes that are lighted along the roof line, but I was going to stoop to Christmas lights for dummies this year.  Rather than highlighting the roof line, I would wrap the remaining working strings around the tree trunks and add a few more light strings to the bushes in front of the windows.  I enjoyed not having to do all of the ladder work.  This bit of sloth turned into a guilty pleasure.

But I think Jesus is OK with me having my Christmas lights wrapped on trees and bushes rather than on the eves.  I even think Jesus has stopped wearing his hair in a mullet style too.  Me and Jesus are just OK not doing the traditional Christmas lighting.  Me and Jesus can handle the change.

Happy Birthday Jesus! (even if December 25th isn't your real birthday anyway)

I hope you like the new style of Christmas Lights.